“Stop Us Before We Spend Again!”
Someone needs to cut up the Senate’s credit cards.
Yesterday, that body added several additional spending projects to the “emergency” appropriations bill, sending the overall cost soaring to near $109 billion, making it now $17 billion over the $92.2-billion threshold (plus another $2 billion for avian-flu preparedness) Bush says he’ll veto at. Bush reiterated his veto threat yesterday, saying “some here in Washington with trying to load up that bill with unnecessary spending. The Congress needs to hear me loud and clear. If they spend more than $92.2 billion plus pandemic flu emergency funds, I will veto this bill.”
The Senate, once again, rolled its collective eyes and kept passing amendments. Yesterday’s additions included $289 million to “compensate emergency workers who might be injured by experimental flu vaccines” (at the request of Senator Kennedy), “$1.6 billion for levees in Louisiana, $30 million for Gulf Coast election assistance and $30 million for forest projects.” The LATimes adds that $37 billion million (sorry, California!) for levee repairs in California has also been added.
These are not emergencies. Neither is the war in Iraq, but apparently that ship has sailed. George Will’s Newsweek column this week has some appropriate thoughts on these so-called emergencies: “Why are we funding Iraq, one of the longest wars in American history—by Nov. 25, 2006, it will be 1,347 days old, the number of days between Pearl Harbor and VJ Day—with ‘emergency’ bills? To hide, or at least obscure, the costs. Funding the war in dribs and drabs—as if the fact that the war costs money is a recurring surprise—spares Congress from confronting the huge cost and having to make room for it in the budget by shedding lower-priority spending.” While I disagree with some of what Will says later in the piece, this paragraph is quite apt.
Apparently the senators now gleefully passing amendments that add to the cost of the spending bill are expecting those bits to be excised during conference with the House. At least one opponent of the extras doesn’t think that’ll happen: Senator McCain said yesterday “I hope it gets stripped out, but I’d be surprised.”
Who knows what will happen in conference – the House negotiators might insist on trimming out the extra fat the Senate has added to this bill. I think it somewhat more likely they’ll leave in most of it. And then the big question becomes, will the president veto? McCain says he has no idea: “We have never been down this path before with this administration, with a substantial, firm veto threat.”
I asked a few days ago “Who’ll Blink First?” So far, neither the president nor the Senate has batted an eyelash. The time is coming. While I continue to think in my own cynical way that this might be a contrived controversy in order to give Bush his first veto, I’m still not convinced he won’t duck the issue rather than use the pen.
5 Responses to ““Stop Us Before We Spend Again!””
This could be a historic occasion. President Bush might vetoe a bill!
I’m all tingly!
…will the president veto? McCain says he has no idea: “We have never been down this path before with this administration, with a substantial, firm veto threat.”
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Bush threatening the big-V on any resolutions against the Dubai Ports deal? That is, before DP pulled his fat off the fire, or pulled the fire from under his fat, as it were? IIRC, he was sounding pretty sincere then too…
Way to go Jermey! Change that 37 million for California to 37 billion!
It’s good to lie to say how greedy Californians are! Just like we all laughed when they said they were getting ripped off by billions in that electricity crisis years ago when they “privatized.” We knew it was their greed because they used 50% of the average electricity of other Americans. Selfish greenies. Who cares if the markets were manipulated?! And they were ripped off by billions?! We got to laugh at them and our glorious administration maee sure they didn’t collect most of the money.
3 cheers for Enron!!!!
You’re darn right, the levies breaking in the Delta ain’s a real crisis. Yeah maybe a couple of hundred thousand will get flooded out, some crucial roads block and southern California along with the countries richest agricultural region will lose a lot of water.
But they are Californians! No better than those you know whats in New Orleans. Worse even, a bunch of liberals and illegals.
Let em suffer!
You know what gets me and I’m sure you agree! They get back 76 cents for every dollar they pay in taxes1 ow that’s ridiculous. A lot of that money could go to patriotic, American states instead of those traitor foreigners. It makes me so mad that we give money for research at UC and Stanford when we could send it to something useful like a bible college in Alabama. And they are always making trouble like with those computers and this internet and that biotechnology.
A bunch of useless bums. Yeah their leveees are no problem. Let them collapse in an earthquake or a really wet year or just because some of them are a hundred years old!
We’ll get California where we want them! Ha ha ha!
37 million! How could they ask for that?!!!
You’re so right this isn’t an emergency! It’s an opportunity! Yay!
You’re a great man Jermey!
This avian flu stuff is nothing more than a slush fund for big pharma, and any other companies on the GOP list of donors that might be somehwat useful. The4 avian flu is very hard to transmit to humans unless you like sleeping with infected chickens, or your pet get ahold of an infacted bird and scratches of licks you. In otherwords I you’d have to be a simpleton to make yourself vunerable……ok NM all I said yes this is america so the proliferation of simpletons here will probably kill us all with avian flu AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
Otherwise this is a big giveaway of tax dollars to campaign contributors right before a midterm election. Way to call in those donations GOP!
Billion/million issue re: CA fixed. Sorry to any offended Californians.
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TITLE: After 5 years, why is this still an emergency?
BLOG NAME: Owned By Cats
From The Moderate Voice, this quote: